Think we can't live without plastic? Think again. In 2007 I committed to stop buying any new plastic & I've almost succeeded! Won't you join me? Let's see what plastic-free looks like today… for the health of our bodies, our oceans, our planet. ~Beth Terry

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Monthly Archives: June 2017

People ask me what I do for hair elastics since they are plastic. The truth is, I’ve never had to buy them because there are a gazillion on the ground every day. Parking lots, sidewalks, the floor of the gym… How do they get there? And is reusing discarded hair elastics gross or thrifty? Would you do it?

So, um, yeah. I pick up crap off the ground and put it in my hair. For the rest of you, please check out KOOSHOO certified organic hair accessories. Their hair elastics are made from organic cotton and natural rubber, not plastic!

KOOSHOO sent me a pack of five hair elastics to try out. Ironically, I had just gotten my hair cut before trying them, so I did the best I could. They work great, and because they are covered in cotton, the natural rubber elastic does not pull your hair.

For ten years, I’ve been searching for the perfect plastic-free dental floss. Back when I wrote my first dental floss post, the greenest choices were either biodegradable silk floss in rigid plastic containers (I’m looking at you, Radius) or non-biodegradable Eco-Dent nylon floss in a cardboard box. (Some brands like Tom’s of Maine or Radius seemed to come in cardboard boxes but actually included a hard plastic dispenser inside the box.) There was no biodegradable floss in plastic-free packaging.

Times have changed.

Recently, I discovered two more promising brands of floss — one that is plastic-free and another that is both plastic-free and refillable! Here’s a rundown, comparing Eco-Dent in a cardboard box, Le Negri in a metal tin, and Dental Lace in a refillable glass container, as well as a few more options at the bottom of the post.

I’ve been away from blogging and social media for a few months, needing time to recuperate from the onslaught of attention-grabbing, anxiety-inducing posts that had hijacked my “news” feeds. Taking a break to be in silence for a while helps. So do walks along the red dirt trails or the rocky coastline of Moloka’i, Hawaii.

In the end of March, I went on my annual silent meditation retreat to the center of the center of the center. (The retreat center is in the middle of Moloka’i, which is the middle of the Hawaiian Island chain, which is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.) It just so happened that the week of my retreat was the same week as Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii’s first statewide beach cleanup event. And the cleanup event planned for the island of Moloka’i happened to be scheduled on our only day “off” from silent meditation. There’s more serendipity in how I even found out about… Read the rest

Read the book…

Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too is your illustrated, practical guide to living with less plastic, updated with new chapter and foreword by musician Jack Johnson. Click here to learn more.